3x01 "Josh's Ex-Girlfriend Wants Revenge"
Written by Aline Brosh McKenna and Rachel Bloom, directed by Erin Ehrlich. Original airdate October 13 2017.
SEASON PREMIERE - Rebecca vows revenge against Josh Chan and after a few false starts finally alights on a plan.
Songs:
"Where's Rebecca Bunch" (sung by full cast)
- Affectionate Parody: Of Disney's Setting Introduction Songs, especially "Belle" from Beauty and the Beast.
- Anachronism Stew: The song takes place in an apparently feudal setting, but one of the characters has a cellphone (with an archaic-looking font) and Maya is still wearing very modern-looking glasses.
- Call-Back: "West Covina" had Rebecca getting excited about soft pretzels as one of the many "glamorous" aspects of her new life in the eponymous town. The fact that she's trampling one underfoot while plotting her revenge in this song does not say good things about her mental state.
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Fake Brit: The entire cast, except Rebecca. - Freeze-Frame Bonus: The sign for West Covina says "68,000 paces to the beach" and after George is fired he wears a sign saying "Will Work for Grog".
"Let's Generalize about Men" (sung by Rachel Bloom, Donna Lynne Champlin, Vella Lovell & Gabrielle Ruiz)
- All Men Are Perverts: Including Paula's sons.All men are completely repressed
(Uh-huh!)
All men only want to have sex
There are no exceptions
All three billion men are like this
All 3.6 billion men! - All the Good Men Are Gay: Parodied. Straight men are horrible; gay men are cool but in a Pet Homosexual way.
- Affectionate Parody: Of Its Raining Men.
- Hypocritical Humor: Claiming that all men "never listen and only think about themselves, as opposed to women who always listen and never think about themselves" gets especially rich when it's Rebecca singing it, given that her often-noted Fatal Flaw is her self-centeredness and Selective Obliviousness.
- Pet Homosexual: They claim gay men are all "Adorable and Fun"
- Straw Feminist: How the singers are portrayed with lyrics like "Let's take one bad thing about one man/And then apply it to all of them" as well as telling Paula that her sons will become rapists.
Tropes in the episode:
- Acting for Two: Josh doesn't appear in this episode, but Vincent Rodriguez III does: As Fake (Brit) Josh (Colin Crowley).
- Armor-Piercing Response: When Paula finally tears into Rebecca about how insane and self-destructive her revenge scheme is.Paula: Even if you hurt Josh, you're gonna hurt yourself more! You'll be exposing yourself publicly! You'll be humiliated! Why would you put yourself out like that?Rebecca: Because I don't care what happens to me.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Valencia's comment of losing business due to the bad wedding and she should "sue" Josh inspires Paula to suggest a lawsuit for Rebecca.
- Glad I Thought of It: After Valencia's "sue" comment and Paula's suggestion of a lawsuit, Paula, Heather and Rebecca gush on Paula's great idea. Valencia just keeps pointing out she had the idea but everyone ignores her.
- Insult Backfire: Nathaniel's attempt to dole out some casual abuse on Darryl does not take into account how much Darryl loves attention of whatever sort.Nathaniel: Okay, who's wasting my time with this stupid meeting? Hmm? And what was up with the subject line? "Insidious business"? Is this you, Darryl? It makes so little sense, it seems like a "you" thing.Darryl: Is it? I have a "me" thing? (thrilled) What are some of my other "me" things? Asking a lot of questions, is that a "me" thing?
- I Resemble That Remark!: White Josh notes that all his friends claim he's judgy, but he doesn't listen to them because he thinks they're all stupid idiots.
- Light Is Not Good: As per Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct, where villainous women also wear white. Lampshaded.Rebecca: My hair is dark because I'm evil, but I'm wearing white because it's ironic.
- Nausea Fuel: In-Universe: Heather looks about to throw up when Rebecca presents her poop cupcake idea.
- Poke the Poodle: Rebecca's "evil scheme" to get back at Josh? Send him poop cupcakes. While still an awful thing to do to someone, her friends are rather let down by it's simplicity and childishness.
- Raging Stiffie: Nathaniel gets one around Rebecca in sweat shorts.
- Scenery Censor: Rebecca's nude body is blocked by the boom mic and camera held by the gals.
- Shout-Out: To Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct, which are the Blu-rays Rebecca buys for her revenge plan. The Basic Instinct interrogation scene was also recreated for a Season 3 poster
. - Woman Scorned: Invoked by Rebecca in "Where's Rebecca Bunch," where she says she has to go from victim to woman scorned.
